TOPIC: Regal polices with a pager

The paging system -- dubbed a "tattletale tool" by USA Today but the Regal Guest Response System by the company -- allows select moviegoers to alert managers of disturbances during a movie.

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Knoxville-based Regal (NYSE: RGC) initially tested the system in 13 theaters beginning last August.

The system relies on a hand-held pager with four buttons used for a specific problem: sound, picture, piracy or other disturbance. The buttons activate a pager worn by a manager that tells him what the problem is and in which theater.

The Guest Response System is open to members of the Regal Crown Club loyalty program, which allows members to accumulate credits to earn free drinks, popcorn and movies. The response system allows users to earn extra credits toward those rewards.

(CBS) NEW YORK Has this happened to you? You go to a movie and someone is making too much noise, or the picture or audio goes bad.

So you have to leave the theater to report the problem and you miss part of the film. Well, that's all about to change with the click of a button.

Every moviegoer has his or her theater etiquette pet peeve.

Whether it is a cell phone ringing or a baby screaming, there's always something that has the potential ruin your movie going experience.

Regal cinemas say you can now silence those interruptions with the Regal Guest Response System -- a virtual remote control to mute that annoying patron who's ruining your silver screen sanity.

"I get enraged, and I often want to tell them to shut up," moviegoer M. David Levin told CBS 2 HD.

Theatre employees at Battery Park Stadium now handle that duty without patrons missing a second of film. A hand-held pager is given to a random member of the Regal Crown Club Loyalty Program who's attending each movie.

"If any situation does arise they can just press a button which goes directly to the pager which the manager will have and they'll signal it and they'll go right into the theater and handle the situation," theater manager Heather Dematteis said.

"This device can be used for more than just reporting loud patrons," Dematteis added. "It also can be used to report problems with the picture, sound and even piracy."

Some theater patrons love the idea, but others think it's overkill.

"I think it's a little bit too much," Alexander Sodon said. "I think people should just go to the movies and just watch the movie and not worry about pressing a button to solve their problems."

Regal Cinema says its never pinpoints the guest reporting the problems, and the successful program is now being used in 114 theaters across the country.

The Regal Guest Response System is being used in seven theaters in the New York area.

How are they anonymous to the manager? Don't they have to be given the pager, and then return? I'd be worried too many of the devices would accidentally be forgotten to be turned back in. But I like the idea, I guess because I hate as a moviegoer to have to leave a movie to find a manager. And I like the anonymity in being able to complain about some jerk without having them know it was me. Overkill, maybe. It's a shame people don't know how to act in public anymore.

Even at Gigantor Megaplex there are very well known patrons. At our small town theatres there is no problem finding a good person who'd be happy to help. Regal tried it and said the same thing. They only give them to select people. Where do you buy one?
Michael Hurley
Impresario

I wish the Cinemark I go to would give me one. It sure would be nice not to have to get up to tell them their movie is out of frame or focus, their lights failed to dim, their volume needs adjustment or any other frequent problems they seem to not recognize by themselves.

And as far as ratting on the obnoxious patrons, well that would be a good thing, too. They wouldn't see someone get up and might not know when the theatre staff came in to observe their behavior.

I'm with Mike. I think even in the megaplex they would know who to give those things to. I like the idea.

Moviegoers were treated to a quieter film experience yesterday when seven city cinemas offered handheld devices that allow patrons to silently tattle on talkers and pesky cellphone users.

The devices, which transform loyal customers at Regal cinemas into virtual hall monitors, let movie watchers anonymously alert management through a paging system if someone is being loud, using their phone or breaking other theater rules.

The only thing better, joked 42-year-old William Madeira outside the notoriously noisy Court Street Regal Cinema, in Brooklyn, would be to "equip each audience member with a Taser."

The system, which has expanded to 114 cinemas nationwide, already has had results at 13 locations, including one in the city, where it's been in place since August, said Regal's vice president of marketing and advertising, Dick Westerling.

Westerling said Regal cinemas selected their tattlers from customers who'd signed up for the company's loyalty program.

During the test run, the most common problems reported were patrons talking and using their cellphones for text-messaging, he said.

"I'm all for it," said Manhattan actor and model Henry Lee Barnes, at the Regal in Battery Park.

Barnes deliberately goes to movie showings during the day to avoid noise - but even then, it's difficult to escape.

"Every showing, every day, there's someone with a cellphone who doesn't turn it off," he said.

I've always thought it would be a good idea to have a system where buttons were installed underneath the armrests of each chair. Patrons could inconspicuously push the button for help/manager and not be known by the audience. This tattle-tale device is basically the same thing, but with a wired system, you wouldn't need to assign pagers to people, make sure they were returned, keep fresh batteries in them, etc.

"In a place like this, the magic is all around you. The trick is to see it." -Martin Landau